


Journey of Discovery

by DoctorV



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Gen, High School AU, Homestuck Shipping Olympics, Other, Pale Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-21
Updated: 2011-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-26 09:12:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/281295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorV/pseuds/DoctorV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and Vriska wake up in bed together after a party. Can their bropalship survive in the wake of alcohol and hormones?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Journey of Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for Round One of the Homestuck Shipping Olympics. Unfortunately...I missed the deadline, so it was never posted. TRAGEDY.
> 
> Anyway, the theme of that round was cliches. Take them, use them, share the magic. I pretty much went through a list of cliches and pulled all the ones I thought I could mold into a single entity. (Be glad I ran out of time before I could hit "zombie apocalypse." That was my original plan. This was supposed to end with John driving into the sunset while Vriska mows down the undead from the passenger-side window with a shotgun.) Cliches used include: high school AU, drunkenness/inebriation, amnesia (from alcohol, it still counts), woke up in bed together, road trip, "pale for each other all along" (which I maintain is totally a troll cliche). Enjoy!
> 
> (EDIT: Now with bonus cliche pre-fic song lyrics!)

\-----  
 _Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world_  
She took the midnight train going anywhere.  
Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit  
He took the midnight train going anywhere.  
\--Journey "Don't Stop Believing"

\-----

John wakes with a headache and the nagging feeling that his pillow is way more squishy and comfortable than usual. He burrows his face further into it and stretches carefully, body aching.

His pillow groans.

John throws himself away from his pillow with a startled yelp, flails wildly, and promptly falls out of the bed and onto his ass. Heart and head pounding, he stares up at the bed and the figure groggily shifting around on it. She groans again and John's eyes widen.

"V-Vriska?" he croaks. His mouth is dry and his tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth.

Rolling onto her side, Vriska cracks open her eyes and squints down at him. When she recognizes him, her eyebrows knit with misery and she rolls back over, covering her face with her arms.

Slowly, memory creeps sheepishly back into focus and John's heart sinks. A party, they'd been at a stupid high school party and gotten drunk and come up here to talk because they're bropals and being around Vriska makes everything bad in the world seem not so bad and also like he could take on anything and he knows she feels the same. There's just _something_ about their friendship that feels _right_.

And now they've gone and ruined it, because he remembers their arms wrapped around each other and Vriska's warm, beer-smelling breath on his cheek and he had woken up _on top of her_. Snuggling her boobs, even! John had woken up snuggling his bropal's boobs, even though most of the time he's barely aware of the fact that she has them, in much the way he doesn't really think about the fact that Vriska has shoulders or knees or hair. They are just part of the whole package and there is nothing sexual about them at all and there is nothing sexual about their bropalship except now there _is_ and everything is ruined _forever_.

John doesn't even realize he's crying until there is a faint thump and Vriska's arms are around him, pulling him close and resting her cheek on top of his head and mumbling unintelligible sounds that speak of concern and bropality. Well he can't very well _not_ hug her back, so he doesn't even try not to. Instead, they wrap each other up in a cocoon of tangible bropalery and hold on tight.

\-----

Nothing changes.

Apparently having sex with your bropal doesn't count if you can't really remember the actual sex. At least that's how John figures it works. Because after their epic Support Hug of Bropal Unity, John had helped Vriska to the bathroom and held her hair while she puked and then she rubbed his back while he took his turn yawning technicolor into the sink. And then they cleaned up as best they could and stumbled down the stairs and out the front door, leaning on each other.

Getting home after that had been a collaborative effort, but Vriska lived just down the street and John was always welcome in her hive. Her mom-lusus even knows not to try to nibble on his limbs, and that's something she doesn't do for _anyone_.

Once safely in Vriska's room, habit took over and they fell into their usual sleepover roles: Vriska in her recooperacoon and John curled up in a sleeping bag on a sturdy shelf right next to the opening to it. That way they could still talk and see each other while they were falling asleep. This time, though, they immediately passed out after the effort of getting there while hung over.

Then when they woke up, nothing had changed. They even popped in _Con Air_ on the laptop situated across from their sleeping area and afterwards had a feelings jam about how awesome Nic Cage was and how he should be in _all_ the movies. All of them. Just like that, everything was suddenly fine again and they were once more the best of bropals.

Their little bubble of unchanged bropalship lasts up until the end of the weekend and the return of school. With school comes the rumor mill and the whispers following them through the halls of "Oh my god did you hear about Egbert and Serket at Gamzee's party?" Their friends at least don't make a federal fucking issue about it. Karkat glares and tells him he could do better and Kanaya is a degree or two chillier to him, but that's about it. Except for Rose's raised eyebrow, but then Rose has always been able to convey pages worth of thick prose with just her eyebrows so it's a bit more than _just_ a raised eyebrow.

Dave is completely absent the entire day, which John is secretly and guiltily grateful for because he's pretty sure there would be no end to the playful ribbing and right now his emotional ribs are still a little sore. When asked, Rose mentions sloppy interspecies makeouts and a virus mutated to thrive in both human _and_ troll systems is at least partly to blame and that she's certain he will return to them none the worse for wear once he finishes attempting to evacuate his body of every source of nourishment it has ever injested.

John says "Ew" and resolves to Pester his buddy after school and Be Sympathetic. Also to not give him any shit about unprotected makeouts, especially since he apparently has no room to talk. (Then he spends a good minute hyperventilating about the lack of protection he's sure happened with himself and Vriska until he remembers that trolls don't work like that and he doesn't have to worry about any mutant human/troll hybrid babies popping out of his bropal.)

The rest of John's day is spent wondering if he should propose to Vriska, because isn't that what you're supposed to do with girls you have sex with? Except in reverse? He begs off a Best of Nic Cage marathon with Vriska (which is a misnomer since it's _all_ the best, all of it) and instead goes home to curl up in bed and stare at the wall wondering if his bropality really _has_ been damaged by alcohol and hormones.

\-----

The next week is a school holiday, so Vriska grabs his arm and marches him over to her car and informs him that they're going on a road trip. John buckles himself into the passenger side seat in self-defense and then they're off.

A cooler in the backseat is full of drinks and snacks and Vriska is hunched over the wheel as they tear out of town with a look of steely-eyed determination not unlike that of Cameron Poe confronted with a bunny not snugly tucked away in its box. He tells her as much and she preens and they spend the next hour tossing off quotes at each other. After that, Vriska puts in their bropal mix CD that they made together and they sing along until their voices go hoarse and the sun is barely peeking over the edge of the world.

John insists they stop somewhere and sleep, even if it's just in the car, and Vriska reluctantly agrees after he points out that she wouldn't be a very good bropal if she got him killed by nodding off at the wheel. They pull over behind a grub sauce billboard and are asleep almost as soon as Vriska kills the engine.

The next morning, John takes over driving duties and takes them to a quaint little side-of-the-road diner where the elderly waitress calls them "hon" and doesn't even blink when Vriska orders flies with her rare burger. Even fried, John has never been able to try more than a crispy, breaded wing before bluhing. John orders greasy eggs and crispy bacon with pancakes on the side (the only cake he can tolerate) and is delighted when they arrive in the shape of a smiley face.

Then they're back on the road and it's an hour of the license plate game before John thinks to ask "Where are we going?"

"To see America, Joooooooohn," Vriska replies, rolling her eyes at him and grinning.

Well when she puts it that way, it seems obvious. So he grins back and doesn't mind that he's not even sure which direction they're going or even how to get back home.

\-----

It's getting dark and it's Vriska's turn to drive when John suddenly remembers that he forgot to talk to Dave. Feeling like a shitty best friend, he opens the Pesterchum application on his phone and shoots off a quick "hi". Dave responds almost immediately with a "sup" and then demands to know where he disappeared to. John says he's on a road trip with Vriska and eventually the conversation meanders over to the topic of the party and the sloppy makeouts that had netted Dave a nasty hybrid virus.

nah wasnt a virus what laid me down low  
it was seeing you and serket get your pale cuddle on  
jegus lock the door next time no man should have to walk in on that  
my virgin eyes are forever scarred

Heat floods John's cheeks and he must have made some sort of noise because Vriska glances over at him with a worried look. Too embarrassed to think of a real reply he just types "dave!" and wills his face to cool down. After a moment he manages to type "don't talk about that! have some cultural sensitivity!"

Dave takes his time replying, but when he does it's a simple "what". John turns his phone so there's no way Vriska can see the screen.

you know...  
...  
...pails...

There's no hope for John's face, now. It will forever be red and the blame can be laid squarely at the oh-so-cool sneakered feet of one Dave Strider.

dued  
dude  
no  
what no  
thats not a typo dude  
pale not pail  
you werent snuggling any troll sexual paraphenalia  
you were...  
shit i thought you were already moirails john  
i realize now my first mistake was thinking you were calling it bropals for irony  
i shouldve known better than to think youd do anything for irony

John stares at his phone, gobsmacked. He knows about the quadrants, of course. There are enough trolls in his school and neighborhood that he's seen each one of them in action, and it's impossible to be friends with Karkat Vantas and _not_ get a lecture on the intricacies of them and their obvious superiority to the human system of doing things. He's just never really considered them with regards to himself. Weird hate-flirting from Karkat aside.

He manages a "what?" but can't think of anything to follow it with. Then before he can stop himself he adds "but i thought that...we did. with pails. or...not with a pail because there wasn't one around, but. you know what i mean!"

you feel that bro  
thats reality cracking at the seams and shitting itself  
because you just made the impossible happen  
im laughin my ass off here  
congratulations john

Something in John's chest that he hadn't realized was clenched suddenly relaxes and a huge gust of breath escapes him. It feels like it had been clenched and choking him since he woke up with his head in Vriska's boobs. He has to be sure, though. "so...we didn't have sex?"

jegus john  
no  
no sex was had  
no pails just pales  
im saying there were fucking diamonds all over in your eyes lucy  
youre like one of those shitty troll romcoms vantas loves so much  
where they discover they were pale for each other all along  
pink as far as the eye can see john  
am i getting through the derp here

"Oh my god," John whispers, staring at Dave's words. Seeing things spelled out like that, he suddenly realizes how true it is. He types out a rapid "i have to go, dave, bye!" and signs out, turning to look at Vriska.

She's sneaking a peek at him again, eyebrows drawn together and lips tight with concern. Hand shaking as he reaches out to touch her shoulder, John hesitantly asks her to pull over at the diner up ahead. It's been hours since they last ate and they could use a break from the constant motion of the road being eaten up by their tires.

Inside, John's too nervous to touch his sandwich and Vriska demands he tell her what's wrong. He looks up at her, really _looks_ , and realizes what's been there the whole time. She's always there for him and trying to help him be a better person and wants nothing more than for him to succeed at _life_. Vriska has complete faith that he will. She's kind of a mess and bossy on top of it but he wouldn't trade her for _anyone_ (not even if Nic Cage said John could only have one bropal and wants it to be _him_ ). He calms her down when she's getting twitchy like she wants to hurt someone and he knows she has it in her to be better than she has been in the past.

"Joooooooohn!" Vriska drawls impatiently, covering one of his hands on the table with her own.

Throat tight and dry, John can't find his voice to speak so he turns his hand so it's palm to palm with hers and curls their fingers together. Then with his heart pounding in his ears and his entire body trembling faintly, he raises a hand in a gesture he's seen Nepeta use about a gazillion times with a blushing and sweaty Equius.

Vriska's eyes go wide and blue floods her cheeks. John's face is just as colorful, he's sure. He can feel the red heat of it.

Fingers tightening against his, Vriska lifts her free hand and slowly meets John's hand in the other half of a diamond.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey check it, this fic has now [been podficified](http://cryocumulus.tumblr.com/post/33660865074/title-journey-of-discovery-author-doctorv)! :D

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [For A Smile They Can Share The Night (The Movie Never Ends Roadtrip)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/310467) by [biichama (biichan)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biichan/pseuds/biichama)




End file.
